New light on the search for low-metallicity galaxies – I. The N2 calibrator     

GlendaDenicoló  RobertoTerlevich †  ElenaTerlevich ‡ 《Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society》2002,330(1):69-74

We present a simple metallicity estimator based on the logarithmic [N  ii ]   λ 6584/H α   ratio, hereafter N2, which we envisage will become very useful for ranking galaxies in a metallicity sequence from redshift survey-quality data even for moderately low spectral resolution.
We have calibrated the N2 estimator using a compilation of H  ii galaxies having accurate oxygen abundances, plus photoionization models covering a wide range of abundances. The comparison of models and observations indicates that both primary and secondary nitrogen are important for the relevant range of metallicities.
The N2 estimator follows a linear relation with log(O/H) that holds for the whole abundance range covered by the sample, from approximately  1/50th  to twice the Solar value  [7.2<12+log(O/H)<9.1]  . We suggest that the ([S  ii ]   λλ 6717,6731/H α )  ratio (hereafter S2) can also be used as a rough metallicity indicator. Because of its large scatter the S2 estimator will be useful only in systems with very low metallicity, where [N  ii ] λ 6584 is not detected or in low-resolution spectra where [N  ii ] λ 6584 is blended with H α .  相似文献